The films that inspire Terry Gilliam
The former Monty Python member and director of Time Bandits, Brazil and The Zero Theorem gives us a glimpse inside his mind – and shares the films that shaped his vision as a filmmaker.
Terry Gilliam’s films are unlike those of any other director. His latest movie, The Zero Theorem, is characteristically surreal – and for many critics, a spiritual follow-up to his 1985 masterpiece Brazil. He crams detail into every frame, so that even his most fantastical landscapes still seem hyper-real. He mixes absurdist humour with sharp political commentary. His cinematic vision feels like it comes through a direct conduit from his dreams – and nightmares.
But nothing is created in a vacuum, and Gilliam is the first to acknowledge it. In the latest instalment of Flashback, hosted by film journalist Alison Bailes, Gilliam talks about the movies that shaped his cinematic sensibility and reveals that his ion for creating films is matched only by his love of watching them.